Surviving growing pains

McGraw sees Irish getting stronger

McGraw sees Irish getting stronger

February 13, 2009|By CURT RALLO Tribune Staff Writer

In taking on a murderer's row of Big East opponents -- four ranked teams in six games -- the Notre Dame women's basketball team has taken a few bruises. The Irish suffered losses to Pitt and Louisville, but Notre Dame has dished out a few bruises as well, including a victory over a tough DePaul club. After Tuesday's game against unranked South Florida, the Irish take on the ultimate test -- No. 1 and unbeaten Connecticut on their home court on Feb. 22. But as the Irish face the hottest fires of what is arguably the toughest conference in the nation this season, they are forging a mettle that will serve them well in the NCAA Tournament. "We'll move on easily," McGraw said after Notre Dame lost 71-66 to Louisville on Wednesday night. "We really wanted to go 2-1 during this stretch (vs. Pitt, DePaul and Louisville). "We knew that it would be difficult to do that, but we thought we'd take the home games." Although Notre Dame struggled against the athleticism of Rutgers and Pitt recently, the Irish proved that they can compete with top 10 teams by the way they took on Louisville. "I think we're playing a lot better," McGraw said. "I think when you looked at us earlier in the year, and we were losing to some teams we shouldn't have lost to, we really weren't playing well. "But when you look at us now, (Louisville) is a top 10 team, and we obviously are right there with them. I think we're playing a lot better. Even though we lost, I think we can draw a lot of good things from that game. "Certainly we still have Connecticut on the horizon, so we have another chance to play a ranked team. We have take care of business down the stretch and get our tournament résumé in order." According to McGraw, the Irish proved to themselves that they can put the brakes on a high-octane offense like Louisville. "Coming out of the Pitt and Rutgers games, we were worried, because we couldn't hang with a team that had a lot of athletic players," McGraw said. "We really played poorly in both of those games. I was happy to see that defensively we played better. We certainly can play with a team like that." 1,000-point club Notre Dame junior Ashley Barlow scored 16 points against Louisville, giving her exactly 1,000 points in her collegiate career. Barlow became the 24th Notre Dame women's basketball player to reach the 1,000-point milestone. She is the first Irish player to reach the coveted scoring milestone since Charel Allen reached the mark on Feb. 26, 2007, at DePaul. Irish senior Lindsay Schrader could be the next Notre Dame women's basketball player to hit the 1,000-point mark. Schrader has 926 points in her career. Beth Morgan (1993-97) is the all-time Irish scoring leader with 2,322 points in her career. Katrina Gaither (1993-97) and Ruth Riley (1997-2001) are the only other Irish players to reach the 2,000-point milestone. Gaither scored 2,126 points in her career and Riley scored 2,072 points in four seasons at Notre Dame. Going green Notre Dame's players wore home whites with Irish in green Celtic-type lettering outlined in blue on the jerseys. The idea was to get some extra motivation worked up to take on the No. 10-ranked Louisville Cardinals. "We normally wear those uniforms for big games and tournament time," Irish sophomore Becca Bruszewski said of the new look. "We're excited to wear them. We like that tradition. "We feel a little more special when we wear them. It's about pride."

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